News from the vineyard

The growing season began particularly early this year. A mild winter and a sunny early spring contributed to what was the earliest bud burst on record.

Thus, the risk of frost damage was significantly greater. A temperature of -1°C is enough to freeze the young vine shoots, as was the case on 17 April and 4 May. Around 5% of our vineyard area was hit by frost on both these dates – vines from which we can now only hope for a "mini-harvest" at best. Fortunately, our remaining holdings were unscathed or only affected by the first frost in April. By and large, these vines should be able to offset the damage over the remainder of the growing season.
Let's hope we have seen the last of the spring frosts for one year!

We replanted around 1.1 hectares in mid-April – again, an exceptionally early time to be doing so. Riesling for our estate-level bottlings accounted for most of the new plantings. We also added a little Grauburgunder. These new vines should begin producing wine in 2016.